Feature

Very Big Deals: Five Black Friday Laptops from the Big-Box Stores

Laptop deals don't get much hotter than this. See what's in (your local) store on Black Friday.

By
Sarah E. Anderson

Introduction

(Editors' Note: Catharine Smith also contributed to this story.)

This year, you can save up to $250 on Black Friday laptops—as far as we can tell, from the info that's out there so far. That's a big discount when you're talking about a budget-price laptop. We combed the prereleased (and leaked) ads, and we picked what look to be the best deals out there from Best Buy, Office Depot, RadioShack, and Wal-Mart.

Some of the information in the ads we found is a bit scanty, and we have to warn, the sources of info aren’t exactly 100 percent locked down, so we highly suggest that you double-check any of these deals you're interested in with your local circular before you head out into the shopping madness. Nonetheless, the teasers are tempting, and since we’ve got a pretty good handle on what makes a good laptop—and a good deal—this is the perfect place to start.

We’d also like to make clear, however, that while some of these deals are quite good, none are worth getting hurt over, so please, don’t get involved in a mad rush to the laptop section of the store. That being said, get there early—and by that, we mean a whole day early, as some of these sales start on Thanksgiving Day online and have limited quantities. (And for more Black Friday deals coverage, check out our roundup of 20 Black Friday tech deals dissected and rated, which includes some netbook bargains and lots of deeply discounted PC peripherals.)